A Problem Like Maria
by Fishchick
Summary: Maria and James take a stroll. Written for the 30screams community on LJ, theme 3: Cemetery. Thanks to rosehiptea for the beta.


She felt like someone was watching her.

This wasn't anything new for Maria, but walking through the quiet, foggy woods was disquieting anyway. There was something different about her feeling of being observed out here, beyond the buildings and sidewalks of Silent Hill. Maria tried to tell herself that there couldn't be anything in the woods worse than what she'd already seen, but the skin on her arms itched and crawled anyway.

Rubbing her arms, she asked James, "Why are we out here again?"

James didn't glance her way, but replied, "I told you that I wanted to go back to the cemetery."

"I know that," Maria said disgustedly, "but why do you want to go to this cemetery? The whole fucking town is a cemetery." James didn't respond. Maria was getting used to his silence. It seemed that the longer she spent with him, the less attention he paid to her, unless she went out of her way to provoke him. She didn't know why the hell she kept following him around, but she couldn't stop herself.

Another wave of the creeps hit Maria and she shivered involuntarily. She started to hum to herself, and the two of them continued to wind their way through the trees, crunching leaves. James remained silent, and Maria increased her humming to singing. "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" she warbled. When she still got no reaction from him, she sang more loudly and began gesturing dramatically with the song.

He still didn't speak to her, but she saw his jaw tighten and his shoulders tense. Aha, she thought to herself, gotcha. When she finished, she asked him mockingly, "Not a Sound Of Music fan, James?"

"Cut it out, Maria," was all he said. If she had a dollar for every time he said that, she'd be rich. Not that there was anything to spend money on here.

Maria sat on the damp grass against a tombstone. Her malicious good cheer had faded, and now, as she watched James carefully examine gravestones and make notations in his small notebook, she was growing more and more angry.

There was no hope in Silent Hill. There was no mystery to solve, no solution that would provide a happy ending. The more James clung to his delusions, the more he tried to be rational, to be organized, the more she wanted to tear his papers up and throw them in his face. Being calm and collected was not what brought him here to Silent Hill, and he must know that, somewhere deep inside. He must know that he would not be finding his precious Mary here, waiting for him, and he knew why he wouldn't find her.

That he should be so condescending to Maria in light of those facts... Well, that just made her whole body vibrate with anger. When he pulled his better than thou act, when he treated Maria like she was nothing but the cut-rate whore clone of Mary, she longed to slap his face and scream the truth at him. But she didn't. She couldn't. She couldn't even really explain what stopped her.

"Are you finished yet?" she called to James.

"Maria," he said, as if he were speaking to a child, "I will let you know when I'm finished, okay?"

She stood and didn't bother to answer back. Humming again, she began wandering around restlessly, boredom and anger making her twitchy. She stepped up onto the low stone wall that surrounded the cemetery, and walked along it, balancing with her arms outstretched. After a bit, she began to sing again. "How do you solve a problem like Maria?"

When James' voice said right behind her, "I'm done, Maria," she started with a shriek and began to flail her arms wildly to try to regain her balance. Failing, she fell backwards into James' arms, caught snugly under the knees and an arm. For a moment that felt like forever, they were frozen, and Maria felt her breath quicken at the closeness. Overwhelmed by both desire and self-revulsion, she couldn't tell which one made her face flame more hotly.

She put as much contempt in her voice as possible as she wrenched away and said, "Could you put me down already?!"

James flushed and stepped backwards. "You're welcome," he said sarcastically. "I really don't know why I bother sometimes with you."

"You really don't, do you?" Maria asked tiredly, and turned away from him. She started walking across the graveyard towards the path back to town, leaving him to stare bewildered at her back.


End file.
